I Finally Found Them!!!!

Vincentz

Marantz Maniac
After more than two long years of looking I finally found a pair of oak Altec 19 speakers. In very good condition.

I got back into the high quality and 70's - 80's stereo thing a few years ago. I have been on the search for a certain sound that I heard in my cousins home back in the early 80's. He worked as a high-end stereo salesman at the local shop in town. He had some Altec 19s that just blew me away and I never forgot the sound. When getting back into this hobby, or as it should be called, an obsession, I have been continually on the lookout for those Altecs.

I had BA200's for a few years after having ACI G3 speakers for almost 20 years. I sold the Boston speakers to buy Altec 14 speakers a couple of years ago, which I just love and never thought that I would part with. However, I just found the Altec 19's and I will have them in my possession in the next couple of weeks. After two years of looking. :banana: :banana::banana::banana: Time to say bye to the 14's. :pity: I'm going to miss them. But, it's at least for a good reason. I surely can't keep both monsters. My wife is only so forgiving. I did get permission for the 19's though. She actually said, "they don't look much bigger than the 14's". :smlove:
She loves the 14's almost as much as me, so I think the 19's are going to be an easy sell.

Right now the cabinets are being professionally refinished, the horns are also getting powder coated, the woofers are being upgraded to the 515 version. Plus, I also have the 416's that I will swap out after a while to check them out against the 515 set. The grills are getting redone with a maroon color and I'm also having the speaker posts upgraded underneath. I'm making sure that the cross-overs are up to spec, otherwise they will get treatment as well. The baseboards aren't the best, so they are being replaced with hardwood ones. Finally, I'm having smoked glass tops made, to help protect them.

I will posts pictures as soon as I have them. This work is being done at a local audio shop and I'm trading back the Altec 14's to help re-coup the cost of the 19's. I was going to try and do most of the work myself. However, with work and family I just don't have the time. I'm also upgrading an AR turntable at the moment myself and that is taking a lot of my audio expenses lately. Did not expect the 19's to come up. But, you have grab this sort of thing when it surfaces. Now my long, long search is over.:grnbounce Can't wait!!

For now I will enjoy the 14's for as long as I have them. Listening to them as I write this. :thmbsp:
 
Congrats on getting your 'dream' speakers. I bet they will sound even better than you remember, now that they are yours.
WooooHooooo.
I have a line on a pair of 14's for a good price and am just waiting for the seller to decide to give them up. Never really heard a pair of either the 14's or 19's but from what I have read they're keepers.
 
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Congrats on getting your 'dream' speakers. I bet they will sound even better than you remember, now that they are yours.
WooooHooooo.
I have a line on a pair of 14's for a good price and am just waiting for the seller to decide to give them up. Never really heard a pair of either the 14's or 19's but from what I have read there keepers.


Thanks Bucky! I wish you good luck with the 14's. I have really loved mine. The cool thing is. Since I'm trading them against the 19's, when I bring them in, we are going to do a comparison sound test against the two. Should be pretty cool to hear one against the other.

Don't worry jdwk, I will posts pictures. I should have taken pics of how they are now. Duh!! I will be back in the shop Tuesday and maybe they haven't been started on yet.
 
Congrats! What kind of power/preamp are you going to drive them with?

Hi Cactus Bob, I've read quite a few of your posts over the years and respect your opinion.

I'm going to be driving them with a 60W Aronov Ls960 tube amp. I just bought some new Tung-sol Kt88s for it and they sound great on the 14's. I'm using an Audio Research SP9 MK2 as my preamp. From what I've read the 19's should sound pretty good with it. The amp has a decent sounding bottom end.

Any recommendations??
 
I tried my 19's with KT-88's in ultralinear and and with KT-77's/EL34's in triode biased down to single ended class A operation and definitely preferred the latter. This was with a Tube Audio Design TAD-60 amplifier and TAD-150 tube preamp.

Just picked up some Golden Tube Audio 300B SET mono blocks and hope to try them with the 19's this weekend.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=571184

- Michael
 
Wow!! I bet the mono blocks are going to sound nice. Please keep us posted on how it goes. Thanks for sharing your post also. Michael

Vince
 
Hi Cactus Bob, I've read quite a few of your posts over the years and respect your opinion.

I'm going to be driving them with a 60W Aronov Ls960 tube amp. I just bought some new Tung-sol Kt88s for it and they sound great on the 14's. I'm using an Audio Research SP9 MK2 as my preamp. From what I've read the 19's should sound pretty good with it. The amp has a decent sounding bottom end.

Any recommendations??

Thanks, that sounds like a great combination. I've experimented with tube and SS power amps. A tube preamp (in my case a Mac C220) really made a huge difference in detail etc. Looks like you have it covered nicely with the AR pre and Aronov amp. Someday I might try a SET if one comes my way. Looking forward to your pics and impressions when those babies come home! :thmbsp:

They'll make great plant stands with the glass tops! :)
 
Getting a set of 19's is truly an audio mile stone of which I can too identify with. Kept mine for a bit over a year, modded them to the hilt then sold them real cheap to my good friend in CA- I think sharing THAT sound was probably just as good a feeling as when I would sit back and listen to them. I miss them terribly- but my good friend often reminds me how superb they sound. That works well for me.

I hope you get many hours of enjoyment from them. The fact that you can improve on the stock design with quality amplification and other goodies still speaks well of a speaker system that many regard as a top 5 acquisition! Ya done good!

DC
 
Thanks Michael and Cactus Bob! LOL! Using them for plant stands is the main reason that I bought them.
 
my set had a litter of kitten in them when I found them.......I was a family wrecker of the first order, but being a set of 19's I think it is allowable to do that!
DC
 
Getting a set of 19's is truly an audio mile stone of which I can too identify with. Kept mine for a bit over a year, modded them to the hilt then sold them real cheap to my good friend in CA- I think sharing THAT sound was probably just as good a feeling as when I would sit back and listen to them. I miss them terribly- but my good friend often reminds me how superb they sound. That works well for me.

I hope you get many hours of enjoyment from them. The fact that you can improve on the stock design with quality amplification and other goodies still speaks well of a speaker system that many regard as a top 5 acquisition! Ya done good!

DC

Thanks DC, you're another person that I have followed on these posts. I've done a lot of research on these Altecs and many hours of reading. Doing that, I've come across quite of few of the posts you guys have left on these speakers. So it's pretty cool to have some of you responding to this. Hopefully my speaker looking days are over for quite a while.
 
my set had a litter of kitten in them when I found them.......I was a family wrecker of the first order, but being a set of 19's I think it is allowable to do that!
DC

LOL I'm sure the mother could find some old Soundesign speakers to put them into. Looks like mine has some small kids toys inside them. That seems to be the worst of it.
 
You may or may not have had a glimpse of this with the 14's (I can't say for sure since I've never even seen a set), but the 19's are a little on the bright and shrill side. I've heard other 19's besides my own and this has always been the case....so I think it's a sonic characteristic inherent to the design. My experience is that they really have to be "settled down" with favorable room acoustics, set up in a room of adequate dimension (because sitting closer than ten feet to them hurts imaging) and mated with the right upstream electronics to get them to showcase some serious audio magic. It sounds like your electronics are up to the task, but if you haven't yet (and you have the ability to do so) I strongly encourage some acoustic room treatments unless your room reflections are already heavily tamed by acoustically absorptive room furnishings and decor items.
 
You may or may not have had a glimpse of this with the 14's (I can't say for sure since I've never even seen a set), but the 19's are a little on the bright and shrill side. I've heard other 19's besides my own and this has always been the case....so I think it's a sonic characteristic inherent to the design. My experience is that they really have to be "settled down" with favorable room acoustics, set up in a room of adequate dimension (because sitting closer than ten feet to them hurts imaging) and mated with the right upstream electronics to get them to showcase some serious audio magic. It sounds like your electronics are up to the task, but if you haven't yet (and you have the ability to do so) I strongly encourage some acoustic room treatments unless your room reflections are already heavily tamed by acoustically absorptive room furnishings and decor items.

That's funny, I was actually just looking at one of your posts that you have the picture of your acoustically treated room. Very beautiful room. Your room is an inspiration. I need to do some for sure. As it is ,I'm going to just barely just be able to fit them in my opposite side of the living room. I'm going to be sitting about 15' from them. However my room is only about 25' wide where I sit. It's a carpeted room with a large sofa and chair. I would like to move eventually to a place with a larger living room. Just to accommodate the speakers. LOL! :thmbsp:

I found the 14's a bit bright when I first bought them. I was using a Marantz 2325 and Kenwood 600 at the time. I then went to the Aronov on a suggestion and it really paid off, especially when I put the ARC in the picture. I'm sure that I've also gotten a little bit used to it's brightness. But, it doesn't have the shrillness that it did with the SS equipment. Not that it was terribly bad in the first place.
 
My room is 16x20 and I sit about twelve feet away from the 19s. Without the acoustic treatments the 19's would be a poor fit for the room. You're in good shape with 25x15+. If you sit within four or five feet of the rear wall (the wall behind you) I'd start with some simple absorption panels there...directly behind you. But you can worry about that stuff later. Just enjoy your 19's as is for while....it shouldn't be too difficult. :D

**Edit** corrected proximity to rear wall requirement for absorption
 
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My room is 16x20 and I sit about twelve feet away from the 19s. Without the acoustic treatments the 19's would be a poor fit for the room. You're in good shape with 25x15+. If you sit within seven feet of the rear wall (the wall behind you) I'd start with some simple absorption panels there...directly behind you. But you can worry about that stuff later. Just enjoy your 19's as is for while....it shouldn't be too difficult. :D


:thmbsp::thmbsp:
 
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